Is quantum simulation of turbulence within reach?

Abstract

The possibility of approaching quantum simulation of "topological turbulence" is discussed. In the latter, the topological features of turbulent flow are ascribed to a purely group-theoretic and topological view through the group SDiff of volume-preserving diffeomorphisms and the Mapping Class Group for the 2D surfaces that foliate the 3D flow domain. A class of representations of the group of mapping classes for compact boundaryless surfaces is explicitly constructed in terms of the Witt–Virasoro Hopf-coalgebra and implemented in terms of su(1,1). This leads to a complex, nonlinear Hamiltonian naturally associated with the fluid diffeomorphisms that could lend itself to the quantum simulation of turbulence in Fock space.